AUSTIN — Public education funding in Texas would plummet $4 billion under a school finance plan given final approval Friday by the Texas House, but the cuts could be eased by a contingency plan to tap the state's rainy day fund by an additional $2.3 billion for expected enrollment growth.

In related action, the House passed significantly weakened legislation permitting school districts to seek waivers from limits on class sizes, a development praised by teacher organizations.

On the school finance bill, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers — Democrats and some Republicans representing fast-growth school districts — insisted on a provision that would allow the state's savings account to be used for enrollment growth if the comptroller certifies that money will be available in the rainy day fund above the currently projected balance of $6.5 billion.

With the Legislature meeting in a 30-day special session, the House gave final approval to the plan along mostly party lines by a vote of 101-42. State Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, who voted against the bill, nonetheless called it a significant improvement over a plan that failed in the final days of the regular session of the Legislature that ended May 30.

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The bill approved Friday "made important changes," he said, such as clarifying that the measure will not automatically allow the Legislature to shortchange school districts in the future. Without that change, Hochberg said, districts "could never again count on state funding."

He also said lawmakers tweaked how the cuts were assessed so school districts were not hit extremely hard in one year of the two-year budget cycle. "We balanced the cuts over two years," he said. "That has huge consequences to about 20 percent of our districts and the students they serve."

Bill goes to Senate

The Legislature failed in its regular session to adopt a school finance scheme when Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, staged a filibuster in the waning hours of the session, arguing that the plan had been drafted hastily and was not well-understood.

The bill approved by the House on Friday now will go to the Senate, which is expected to request a conference committee to iron out differences.

All of the amendments represent what "the Senate has been trying to accomplish," said Hochberg. "If we have more in the rainy day fund, as predicted, we can use that to help ease some of the cuts."

Some still opposed

During Friday's debate, Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, urged lawmakers to strip the amendment permitting additional use of the rainy day fund, arguing that the state may need its savings account in case of a massive hurricane or some other disaster.

"This is a vote to preserve the rainy day fund," he said.

The amendment's sponsor, Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, urged lawmakers to permit the money to flow to school districts experiencing enrollment growth if the rainy day fund expands as expected because of high oil prices and a rebounding economy.

"We can come together and do something reasonable for our constituents," she said.

The House voted 79 to 65 to keep Howard's amendment.

Davis praises move

At a news conference after the vote, Davis said she was gratified that the House was reconsidering the position it took in the regular session against finding more money for public education.

"For a bipartisan group of people to come together to do this - it should inspire all of us in the democratic process," she said.

Davis predicted the Senate would look favorably on the amendment, noting that in the regular session, Senate leaders declined to push for greater funding because of reluctance in the House. She also pointed out that some leaders have predicted the rainy day fund would grow by as much as $3 billion over the next two years.

Use of the rainy day fund requires a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature. For Howard's amendment to take effect, both the House and Senate will have to adopt the final school finance bill — after it goes to a conference committee — by a two-thirds vote.

Class-size amendment

On the class size bill, Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, amended his own proposal to permit cash-strapped schools to seek waivers from the Texas Education Agency to exceed school class limits. Educators, who opposed larger class sizes, predicted the weakened version would have little effect on current practices.

"Parents and teachers have spoken out and made it clear that the class-size law is an important safeguard that shouldn't fall victim to a temporary fiscal crisis," Bridges said. "The new provisions proposed for the class-size cap merely add more specificity to what was already in place," she said.